In my business, there’s a certain amount of price talk / price resistence that I have to go through. But you know, the old saying is true – you DO get what you pay for.
I had this client I did some website writing for early last year. I did a nice job for her, but I know I was definitely stretching her budget. No surprise that once I was done, she went to someone else to do the additional webpages. Someone about one fourth the price of me (and I’m not that expensive, so this other person was working dirt-cheap.)
Well, she just came back to me last week. Know why? Because her other writer was cutting/pasting his work from other sources. She found this out from copyscape – the new copy she paid for was shamelessly lifted from somewhere else. This is bad, because not only could it hurt her with search engines (duplicate content and all), she could find herself with a nasty cease and desist letter. And trust me – the company who was ripped off isn’t going to care that some no-name copywriter did it.
Let me explain one reality of writing – it takes time.
Let’s take web copy. It usually takes me, a professional writer who’s been doing this for years, several hours to write a quality 300-400 word webpage. It’s not something I bang out in ten minutes. Or twenty. Or even an hour. NOBODY can. Trust me, writing good, engaging copy is hard work.
So, that person who will do it for $50… what do you really think you are getting there?
The reality of the situation is this: There are two ways it can be done for $50…. either they are working for pennies, or they are cheating. If they are working for pennies, trust me, they aren’t good enough to get someone to click/call/buy (which is why you want writing in the first place). And if they are cheating… well, you’re the one who will get into trouble for that. You’re better off doing it yourself.
Just food for thought – you do get what you pay for. This doesn’t just go for copywriting, of course, but for any business.
Don’t mean to sound frustrated, but it does frustrate me from time to time. Especially when I get the curt “I found someone who will do it WAY cheaper”. I can just envision those people also saying “Why golly gee, Mr. Goober Flatire… you’ll fix my brakes for just $20??? Wow, the reputable garage wants $200… boy, they must really be crooks. So yea, go ahead and fix em’!!!”